Lioness Rampant wrote:I would have to differ in that I believe that Breaking Dawn clarified how selfish Rosalie really is...

I belive that she is self-centered, incredibly insensitive, and VERY self-centered. Did I mention that she is self-centered?All pity I felt (after reading her story) dissapated. Her story simply cannot justify her vain, selfish personality.She is the most vain and arrogant character in the series. and selfish. don't forget selfish.

Sorry If I've offended any Rose-lovers. But I just can't stand her!

Pretty strong words, but which are refuted by ... ... ... oops, no followup in Breaking Dawn (at least I can't recall any). Rosalie's motivations are even called into question by Edward, who catches a thought from Rosalie that if Bella dies, Rosalie might be able to take over caring for Nessie. You would think there might be some resolution after the delivery, but Rosalie is mentioned only when she is tending to Nessie. So you end up having to come to your own conclusions. I would like to think better of her, but the rest of the story doesn't really give me any reason to.

"It will take an amazing amount of control,” she mused. “More even than Carlisle has. He may be just strong enough…the only thing he’s not strong enough to do is stay away from her. That’s a lost cause.”

from the begining i disliked rosalie, not hated, disliked. i found her reasons for disliking bella to be invallid. yeah you can say she wanted to protect her family, most importantly emmett, but really in my opinion, what really got to her was that bella held edwards complete and full attention while rosalie never could. that doesnt mean she wanted edward, but rosalie is addicted to attention, she has always has been able to turn heads, and she always expected it to stay that way( another bad quality of hers).

I dont want you, i need you. I dont care for you, i love you. Ill be there for you, because of you. I wont kill for you, Ill live for you. Ill do anything for you~~NBB

From the very begining i wasnt to fond of Rosalie, i didnt hate her, but didnt like her either. in twilight, its just hard for me to find her dislike fore bella vallid. she says its because she is worried for the fate of her family and the exposure bella could cause, but i honestly think her real issue with bella is that she holds the complete and full attention of edward. something rosalie could never do. she never wanted edward romantically, but she was always used to having every males attention, and when edward wasnt one of her admirers, she could not fathom how he could love plain old bella so much when he didnt give the beautiful rosalie a second thought. to me that was a bit petty of her. the whole new moon thing with bella and the cliff didnt help my image of her. When she told her story in eclipse, i began to understand her more, even felt sorry for her. i mean condemed to a life that is forever the same, never changing, literally frozen in time has to be extremely difficult. so i began to sympathize with her. i felt in her telling bella this story, it was her attempt to really get bella to see the negatives to the choice she was making, which to me was very sweet and kind of her. she would never wish her fate on anyone else. BUT, i lost any respect i gained for rosalie in breaking dawn, because even though bella came to rose for the help to protect the baby, she took that role of "protector" to a whole new level. she wouldnt let anyone near bella if she saw them as a threat. She undermined edwards position as bellas husband by not letting him be invloved in ANY of the descisions, and all this "protection' for what?? she didnt care about bella, she could care less about bellas life, she just wanted to get her hands on that baby. it was her one shot at motherhood, i bet she would have liked to have bella out of the picture, so she could secure her claim on the baby evne further. thats what it is about rose that bothers me, very self-absorbed, uncaring, and petty. i have to reread the extras about rosalie on stephanies website to remember how i felt about them, but im pretty sure i was left with ill feelings towards rosalie. i mean there is some good in her but the bad definately out wieghs the good. sorry rosalie

I dont want you, i need you. I dont care for you, i love you. Ill be there for you, because of you. I wont kill for you, Ill live for you. Ill do anything for you~~NBB

I also find Rosalie a very difficult person to sympathise with. Like most of you I started to understand her a little in Eclipse but was really annoyed about her in Breaking Dawn and enjoyed Jake's jokes and teasing a lot. All actions of Rosalie feel so cold so calculating to me. The way she talks Bella into drinking the blood, the way she hisses at Edward when he seems "to close"... it made me really dislike her. And how naturally Bella hands her Renesmee all the time instead of Edward, he is her father for crying out loud. I don't understand it. Even Bella says she wasn't sure if the friendship with Rose would be the same after her life wasn't bound to Nessie anymore. So Bella knew how Rose could be. And I agree, Edward is able to hear her thoughts, so he would know about Rosalies intentions, too and at one point he even shares his knowledge with Jake. So I am very shure, that Bella's life meant little to Rosalie. On the other hand Rosalie realises that she was shallow, when she tells Bella about her past. I have to give her that much, but it doesn't help to make the great picture brighter. It doesn't even up for all her other actions. It is surly not her fault what happend to her, I mean being raped and all that and then turned into a vampire, but that doesn't mean she has to let anyone else suffer from her bad mood. She should see the good things in life instead of clinging to a past she can't change anymore.

I am new here and Rosalie is the one character I just can't figure out. Whereas the rest of the world seems to embrace Bella, Rosalie is hostile to her. We do see her warm up in Breaking Dawn, but as others have said that seems to be more about the baby than Bella herself.

I am new here and Rosalie is the one character I just can't figure out. Whereas the rest of the world seems to embrace Bella, Rosalie is hostile to her. We do see her warm up in Breaking Dawn, but as others have said that seems to be more about the baby than Bella herself.

Did I miss something?

Hello zastrow, welcome to the Lex.

Everybody has their own interpretations of characters and events here, so there really is no one definitive answer. I can give you my opinion, though, so that's what I'll do.

For me, Rosalie embodies the "cautionary tale" of what it means to have your personality frozen in time as a vampire. They can adapt and learn throughout their lives, but the personality never changes except through very strong emotional events, such as bonding to a loved one. And, Rosalie does go through some changes when she bonds with her family, Emmett, and then Alice and Jasper. Still, Rosalie remains self-centered and vain, and retains all of her regrets from what she lost in her human life.

We don't get to see Rosalie in what would be her normal, typical, business as usual mode, because we only see her when Bella is around. Rosalie is jealous of Bella because Edward is attracted to Bella and not her, triggering her animosity due to her vanity. Bella is also human, which Rosalie is jealous of, and Edward wants to keep her human; the implication is that Edward loves Bella more than Rosalie loves Emmett since she made Carlisle turn him into a vampire. Perhaps most significantly, Bella wants to become a vampire and Rosalie does not respect her decision and cannot see why she would want to do this. Rosalie's regrets trumps Bella's wishes, and Rosalie simply cannot see Bella's point of view. Whatever issues Rosalie has, Bella triggers every single one of them, so Rosalie is always struggling not to show her contempt for Bella, and fails quite often. Rosalie is emotionally crippled, and she knows this, but there is nothing she can do about it. Read SM's extra from New Moon as a good illustration of this. Rosalie struggles to find sympathy for Bella, and knows she should be a better person, but ends up getting distracted by her reflection in the mirror.

It is implied that Bella's delivery of Renesmee and her near-death will change Rosalie's relationship with Bella, although even Bella still has her doubts. I suspect the relationship does change, eventually, but we don't get to see that.

So, keep in mind that since Bella is the narrator, we are always going to see Rosalie at her worst. I'm not going to try to defend her, but I do have a measure of pity for her since I see her in the role of that "cautionary tale" that I spoke of. Something also to keep in mind: Rosalie's often reprehensible behavior is triggered by the many regrets that she has for what she lost in life; think about how Bella would have turned out if she had gone ahead and aborted her child against her wishes and then had her personality and regrets frozen during her own change.

"It will take an amazing amount of control,” she mused. “More even than Carlisle has. He may be just strong enough…the only thing he’s not strong enough to do is stay away from her. That’s a lost cause.”

corona wrote:So, keep in mind that since Bella is the narrator, we are always going to see Rosalie at her worst. I'm not going to try to defend her, but I do have a measure of pity for her since I see her in the role of that "cautionary tale" that I spoke of. Something also to keep in mind: Rosalie's often reprehensible behavior is triggered by the many regrets that she has for what she lost in life; think about how Bella would have turned out if she had gone ahead and aborted her child against her wishes and then had her personality and regrets frozen during her own change.

Thanks, that does help. I'd heard a great deal about Twilight before reading the books, but not much about Rosalie. She seemed to be a misfit in the Cullen clan, but your post makes it much more understandable.

So I got to thinking the other day about Rose and Bella's talk in Eclipse and began to really question Rose telling Bella that none of them had a choice to become a vampire and that Bella was choosing wrong.

She hated Royce and what he and his friends did to her to the point that she killed all of them when she knew she could. She also hated that Carlisle found her after her attack and turned her into a vampire instead of letting her die. But when she found Emmett in the woods after being attacked by a bear she had no problem bringing him home and having Carlisle change Em so that she could be with him. That is something I'm trying to come to terms with about her. She had no problem asking Carlisle to change someone for her to be happy for the rest of her life but couldn't or wouldn't extend the same potential happiness to the rest of her family.

It might just be me, that truly showed how vain and insecure she was as a vampire if she can't or won't allow herself to be happy for her brother and his significant other pre-pregnancy. For all her anger towards Bella for choosing to be like them, she had no problem making that choice for someone else when she hated that it was taken from her.

corona wrote: Bella is also human, which Rosalie is jealous of, and Edward wants to keep her human; the implication is that Edward loves Bella more than Rosalie loves Emmett since she made Carlisle turn him into a vampire.

You know, I never thought about it like that before but, I think you are right on the money! It sorta explains why she is not only unwelcoming to Bella but also condisending to Edward about his falling in love with a human, belittling his choice/feelings.